Green Options

Imagine plugging your laptop into its case to charge the battery. Or your cell phone into a beach umbrella. Or simply slipping it into your shirt pocket. Konarka, a next generation solar energy startup, is currently promoting and raising R&D capital for its Power Plastic line, and while these solar cells, printed on sheets of plastic similar to camera film, can’t quite manage that last one, plans are definitely on the drawing board.

Massachusetts based solar upstart Konarka has developed a low cost thin-film solar material that may one day revolutionize solar power. 

As promised in autumn, the Spring/Summer 2008 ZegnaSport menswear collection dawns a luxury solar jacket. One of the first to market in sunlight harnessing textile inventions, Mens Vouge calls the new ZegnaSport solar jacket:

A marvel of eco-friendly efficiency, it resists the elements you can do without—like wind and rain, –—and uses the sun to power the digital devices you can’t be parted from. Solar panels mounted on the jacket’s neoprene collar soak up rays and then convert the light into energy….               

This is not breaking news in the solar-textile field, because  in 2005 Konarka solar products partnered

New solar technology based on organic photoelectrochemical, dye-sensitized cells, is being implemented in hundreds of every day use consumer products ranging from clothing, smart cards, gadgets, lighting to windows and building facades.

Konarka, a Lowell, MS, company pioneering the technology, says it’s ready to market the products in which the solar dye has been implemented after the summer. The technology has a light to energy conversion rate of of 7.2 percent. This compares to 16 to 20 percent of regular, photovoltaic, solar technology.

The advantages of dye solar technology include flexible implementation options. Dye-based solar technology also converts low light and light rays at obscure angles. Plus the electricity generated can be applied to specific current wavelengths.